Ex-Anglo chair Seán FitzPatrick acquitted on all charges after the state's longest-ever trial
The judge ruled key witnesses had been ‘coached’ by investigators.
FTER THE LONGEST-RUNNING criminal trial in the history of the state, ex-Anglo chairman Seán Fitzpatrick has been acquitted of all charges.
This morning – on the 126th day of proceedings – presiding judge John Aylmer said he will direct the jury to acquit the 68-year-old on all counts.
His ruling came after lengthy submissions from the defence arguing that the case should not go before the jury because of flaws in the investigation process and in the prosecution case.
Lawyers for the Director of Public Prosecution argued that the trial should continue and should be decided by a jury.
Judge Aylmer said that after considering the arguments from both sides he had decided that in the interests of the accused’s constitutional right to a fair trial he would direct the jury to find the former banking executive not guilty.
The former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank was on trial in relation to an alleged failure to disclose the extent of loans to the bank’s auditors. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The jury will be told tomorrow that all charges have been dropped and will be dismissed.
Witness ‘coaching’
Judge Aylmer said that the investigation, carried out by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE), fell short of an unbiased, impartial, balanced investigation that an accused is entitled to.
He said the investigation failed to seek out evidence as to the innocence as well as the guilt of the accused.
Judge Aylmer said the most fundamental error was the manner in which the ODCE set about taking statements from witnesses.
He said this involved coaching of witnesses, contamination of their statements from third parties such as solicitors for the auditors and cross-contamination of their statements between other witnesses.
Judge Aylmer also pointed to the extraordinary circumstances in which the ODCE lead investigator, Kevin O’Connell had admitted he destroyed potentially relevant documentary evidence.
This happened during legal argument in the first trial in May 2015 and emerged during that process.
That trial was then stopped and the retrial of FitzPatrick began last September. It was scheduled to last three months but quickly became bogged down in weeks of legal argument in the absence of the jury.
Sean FitzPatrick in 2014
It was claimed that two key witnesses from Ernst&Young, Anglo’s former auditors, were coached by investigators.
FitzPatrick’s lawyers also argued that the statements by these witnesses were put together by the investigators as well as by lawyers for Ernst&Young. Finally, they said that entire sections from one statement ended up in the other statement.
€122m in loans
The prosecution had alleged that FitzPatrick of Whitshed Road, Greystones, Co Wicklow had failed to disclose to the bank’s auditor the details of director’s loans he received from Anglo between November 2002 and February 2008.
He pleaded not guilty to 27 offences under the 1990 Companies Act. These include 22 charges of making a misleading, false or deceptive statement to auditors and five charges of furnishing false information in the years 2002 to 2007. The DPP had dropped some of these charges in the last four weeks.
The prosecution came on foot of an investigation by the ODCE that began shortly after the full size of FitzPatrick’s personal loans emerged in December 2008.
Between 2005 and 2007, the loans from the bank linked to the chairman had quadrupled to around €122 million. The revelations led to FitzPatrick resigning as the now-defunct bank’s chairman after previously serving as its chief executive for nearly two decades.
Speaking outside the court today, FitzPatrick told reporters that it was “a wonderful day for me and my family”.
“I appreciate the media’s restraint in this current trial, and I would hope that my privacy and that of my family is respected over the coming days,” he said, before adding that he had no further comments to make.
